Local leaders react to Trump DACA decision

Reps. Adam Schiff and Ted Lieu joined Democrats across the state condemning President Donald J. Trump’s decision this week to “wind-down” the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

New DACA applications will no longer be accepted, but existing permits will remain valid until their expiration dates, according to a statement by Trump. Renewals for those with expiration dates over the next six months and applications already submitted will be processed. The president also implored Congress to begin working on legislation to further address the issue.

“Brought across the border by their families when they were only children, these young people have grown up in America, gone to school in America, and made plans for their futures in America,” Schiff (D-Burbank) said. “The President would throw that all away.”

Instituted by President Barack Obama via executive order in 2012, DACA allowed unauthorized immigrants meeting certain criteria to apply for a two-year employment authorization period that would exempt them from deportation. One of the requirements was age – applicants had to have entered the U.S. before turning 16.

Lieu (D-Torrance), arrived in the U.S. as an immigrant at age 3.

“I know that our nation’s embrace of immigrants is what makes it great,” he said, adding that Trump’s decision is “cruel [and] will hurt our economy.”

“I stand firmly with my Democratic colleagues to fight this action and do whatever we can to protect Dreamers,” he continued.

The nearly 790,000 unauthorized immigrants enrolled in the program – which includes minors that would have been granted rights under the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act (proposed legislation that has yet to pass since its introduction in 2001), a group typically referred to as Dreamers – were also allowed to apply for renewal. More than 200,000 Dreamers are in California, the most of any state.

Republicans have long criticized Obama for bypassing Congress, which has failed for years to reach a consensus on immigration reform, to launch DACA.

“In referencing the idea of creating new immigration rules unilaterally, President Obama admitted that ‘I can’t just do these things by myself’ – and yet that is exactly what he did, making an end-run around Congress and violating the core tenets that sustain our Republic,” Trump said in a statement on Tuesday.

Assemblyman Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles) said in a statement that he was “horrified and embarrassed.”

“In my wildest dreams, I could’ve never imagined living in a country where our chief executive one week pardoned a sheriff notorious for his abuse of Latinos,” he said, referring to former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, “and in the next made a reckless and heartless decision to impact the lives of hundreds of thousands of children.”

Mayor Eric Garcetti called the action on DACA “a giant setback for America.”

“It threatens to tear families apart, puts our economy at risk, and will do nothing to unify America or make us more secure,” he said. “The President should open his heart to the scores of families anguished by his decision, and reverse a course where he is so plainly on the wrong side of history and justice.”

The Los Angeles Unified School District’s superintendent and school board members also called on Congress to pass long-term protections for Dreamers.

“Every child deserves an opportunity to dream without boundaries,” said school board member Nick Melvoin, 4th District. “We will not watch from the sidelines as this White House ignores the catastrophic implications of rescinding DACA, but instead redouble our efforts and call on Congress to defend the safety of all Dreamers, in our public schools and beyond.”

Lorri L. Jean, CEO of the Los Angeles LGBT Center, said the decision would “cause irreparable harm to hundreds of thousands of young people.”

“Again this President has targeted some of the best, and most vulnerable, among us: young people who came to America as children and are as deserving of the same rights and responsibilities of all Americans,” she said in a statement. “When this administration tells these young people to ‘go home,’ they are choosing to cruelly ignore the fact that they are already home.”

Richard T. Foltin, director of national and legislative affairs for Global Jewish Advocacy, said in a statement that the decision “is a devastating blow to hundreds of thousands of young people.”

“Welcoming, not penalizing, these young people, who, as children, could not have knowingly violated any law, is in consonance with our nation’s foundational principles,” he said.